From 6.5% to Nearly 30% Engagement: The Measurable Impact of Explorance Blue and MLY at Ulster University

About Ulster University

Ulster University is the largest higher education institution in Northern with a national and international reputation for teaching excellence and research innovation. With approximately 35,000 students – home and collaborative provision – it has three different campuses in Northern Ireland and numerous locations globally. Ulster was crowned University of the Year at the 2024 Times Higher Education Annual Awards.

The Challenge: Outdated survey system and low engagement

Institutionally, Ulster took the strategic decision to move from annual subject modelling and revalidation to a “risk-based continuous enhancement model”.

Student voice is one of the drivers for change and, following a QAA review and with links to the University’s strategy and values, a project led by the Learning Enhancement Team got underway which included replacing its module survey system.

“Our in-house survey system had been in place, largely unchanged, for over 15 years,” explained Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Practice Ursula McTaggart. “Engagement was poor at around 7-8%, the survey launched in week 10/11 of each semester, and feedback was limited to 12 Likert-scale questions and two free-text responses. There was no reporting beyond Head of School, and qualitative comments were not visible. It was time for a refresh.”

Ursula added: “In the National Student Survey (NSS), we had been scoring lower than we would like in the student voice section; how students give, how we act on feedback, so we set out to see what can we do to improve that. This included increasing engagement with end-of-module surveys and introducing mid-module evaluations as requested by students through focus groups. We needed to effect a wider change.”

A Student Voice Working Group involving all faculties, the Student Union and professional services teams, reviewed the current survey system, updated questions with student-friendly language, mapped over 100 existing student surveys, and investigated what other universities – locally and internationally – were using. The group created an ideal system ‘wish list’, and provided regular updates to the Learning & Teaching Committee to support high level buy-in.

The Solution: Immediate impacts with Explorance Blue and MLY

Ursula began a discussion with Explorance which led to procurement in December 2024. Explorance Blue was selected to replace the in-house survey system and Explorance MLY marked a new dawn for the University in how it analyses open-ended comments.

“During the process I was invited by Explorance to the Student Voices in Higher Education 2024 and was really impressed,” Ursula revealed. “It was amazing to talk with other members of the Explorance customer community, also some who are not using Blue, and it was clear Explorance was who we needed to be working with. Having looked at a range of commercial survey options, we chose Explorance for a number of reasons, but the team’s responsiveness throughout the process really shone through: with any question, we got an immediate answer. We were delighted to purchase Blue and MLY, and then the real work started – implementation of the system, and promotion to staff and students.”

Ursula continued: “An initial pilot in Blue for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment in March 2025 saw a 33.39% engagement rate from over 6,000 students – compared with 9.03% using the old system. Within three days of an institutional module evaluation pilot, analysis reports to all teaching staff, school level and Faculty level reports, and SLT aggregated reports were shared with dashboard access. MLY produced 9,992 comments in minutes, converted into 5,515 sentiment topics and 3,403 recommendations. So, the impact of using Explorance was immediate.”

Professor Alex Owen, the University’s Dean of Learning Enhancement, commented: “We are committed to leading the continuous enhancement of a high-quality Ulster University learner experience, and Ensuring Student Voice is one of our learning enhancement themes. Improving engagement with a module evaluation process aligns with several key requirements in the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, including those related to student engagement, assessment, learning and teaching quality, information transparency, and continuous enhancement. Working with Explorance supports us in involving students in the enhancement of their learning experience and ensuring their representation in quality assurance processes.”

The Outcome: Engagement rates and insights support continuous enhancement

Since fully implementing Explorance, and launching an internal promotion campaign to staff and students, results have transformed dramatically.

• End-of-module surveys in semesters two and three of 2025, involving all four faculties and 11,697 invites, later achieved a 22.96% engagement rate, up from 6.5% in the 2023-24 academic year.
• Mid-module surveys undertaken for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment in semester one of the 2025-26 academic year delivered a 28.92% engagement rate, with more than half of the 50 modules exceeding 50% participation.
• By the end of 2025, 87,642 open-ended comments have been analysed in MLY, directly informing Learning Enhancement action plans around group work, assessment, and feedback.

“The insights we are gaining support our institutional approach to Continuous Assurance of Quality Enhancement,” Ursula reflected. “Programme level data is interrogated, including progression, non-continuation, awards, NSS, Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, and widening participation metrics, and compared again university indicators. High-failure modules receive targeted module level feedback. A large volume of student comments is analysed in MLY to identify key themes, which guide Learning Enhancement action plans, particularly around group work, assessment and feedback.”